Lift for Life
This is a story about Martin who has lived a healthy life with Diabetes.
My names are Martin Gatehi, 24 years of age. I hail from Kenya and working as an investment accountant in Archdiocese of Nairobi Kenya. I have been diabetic for the last 10 years.
Diabetes is a condition whereby the pancreas fails to produce or produces insufficient insulin to the body. It was in late December 1996 when I started experiencing frequent thirst, frequent urination and feeling weak all the time; I didn't know what I was going through as there was no pain and if yes it was just headache which could go away after taking pain killers.
I continued this the whole of December 1996 but I felt very uncomfortable and when it came January 1997,I was to get a medical certificate as a requirement when joining the A level education. I took this opportunity to explain to the clinician what I was going through and after the explanation, she suggested for a blood sugar test. The test revealed a blood sugar of 19.8mmols which was interpreted as high sugar.
This was admission case, said the clinician. I was referred to Kikuyu Mission Hospital where I was admitted for one week. During my admission, I was taught how to inject my insulin and how to manage. It looked difficult at first time but I later adopted and took the courage. In my secondary school, life was not simple because my colleagues thought that am taking hard drugs, I took this opportunity to educate them about diabetes and this has been a challenge seen how even the fellow citizen have less information about the disease.
The same applied to my college students. After completing my college education, I joined an education team that has been educating communities about the condition and this has helped me greatly as I could clearly see the problem being faced by diabetes, they have the information but wrong information. With Kenya Diabetes Management & Information Centre (DMI) we have traveled to almost all parts of the country trying to give the right information and probably fighting the ignorance. Due to this I have been appointed as an International Diabetes Youth ambassador in December 2006 and the role is to act as an IDF official in the UN Resolution that requires the government to develop policies in prevention and care for diabetes.
Diabetes is causing unnecessary deaths and this should not be the case, as a result, I have founded a group by the name Diabetes Awareness Support Team (DAST) comprising young diabetics and non diabetics to spearhead this campaign of diabetic ignorance.Among the priorities are:Diabetic educationGovernment interventionAdvocacy and lobbyingChange of lifestyle I hope and believe that diabetes is manageable and cannot hinder someone from achieving his or her dreams.
